Abstract

In the first five years of the 21st century, Pitcairn Island received more attention in the
news media than at any other time in its history. This essay examines the representation
of Pitcairn and its community in contemporary Australian, New Zealand and British
newspapers. In particular, it analyses the reporting of the trials and convictions of seven
men before the Supreme Court in late 2004 for sex offences against women and girls
over a thirty year period. The aim of this paper is to measure the force of linguistic and
textual norms to manage our thinking about place. It identifies and interrogates
dominant patterns in descriptions of Pitcairn Island in the news in order to consider the
vexed question of the relationship between the reality of islands and their
representation.